


made it through the wilderness

by AugustaByron



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Magic, Unicorns, Virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:45:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6320959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustaByron/pseuds/AugustaByron
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So,” Holster says after a moment, “is it true what they say about unicorns?” </p><p>In which Bitty's best friend is a unicorn, and Jack is pretty sure he knows what's going on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	made it through the wilderness

**Author's Note:**

> No excuses. None.

Bittle's got a unicorn.

“Oh, that's just Betsy,” Bittle says when Ransom and Holster bring it up over team breakfast. The unicorn is visible through the window, placidly grazing on the quad outside the dining hall. “She found me when I was about seven. Coach had to build her a stable in the yard after Mama banned her from the house on account of the hardwood floors.”

Rans and Holster exchange a speaking look. The advantage, or disadvantage, of a telepathic link.

“So,” Holster says after a moment, “is it true what they say about unicorns?” He wiggles his eyebrows at Bittle, who blushes bright red and starts laughing nervously.

“That's enough,” Jack interrupts. He sets his coffee mug down on the table, maybe a touch harder than he has to. Ransom and Holster rolls their eyes in sync, but they shut up. “Bittle. Eat some eggs. Pancakes won't help you on the ice.”

And then Jack doesn't think much about Bittle's unicorn.

For a while.

 

Betsy is allowed in the Haus. Jack is pretty sure the floors have seen worse, and Shitty loves her. Everyone loves her. It's a lot like how everyone loves Bitty.

Jack's heard that there's a picture of her on Samwell's website: the top college for magical students in the United States.

She has some trouble with the stairs, apparently, which is why she waits for Bittle outside of classroom buildings and won't go up to his bedroom. But Samwell has to provide reasonable accommodation to any student with magical needs, so while the administration grumbles about it, a prefabricated shed goes up in the Haus's yard. Betsy sleeps out there, but the rest of the time she can usually be found wherever Bittle is, whether that's the Haus kitchen or around campus.

Jack gets used to hearing her whinny whenever he checks Bittle in their practice sessions, and whenever he looks up from the ice, there she is: white coat gleaming, silver horn shining in the early-morning light.

 

Jack was born with ice in his veins, all but begging to sprout out. His dad was the first one to recognize it, even though his mom is the one with the magic. She can make flowers grow. Jack isn't sure exactly how he ended up with cold powers, with a mother like that, who makes fresh peonies bloom in December when she smiles.

It used to mess him up a lot when he was a teenager. He thought there was something wrong with the ice, or wrong with him for being part of it. Now, though, Jack likes it. He likes being able to breathe out frost when he concentrates, and the way that the winter makes him feel alive, alert. He doesn't really need a jacket, since being in the cold is more like going home for him.

And since he's got such weak powers, comparatively, it doesn't effect much of Jack's day-to-day. Sometimes one of the boys asks him to chill a beer that's gone lukewarm.

He's got nothing like Dex's skill with building things. That's what's about to come in handy, anyway.

“Are you sure we can't fix it?” Bittle is fretting, looking around the Haus's yard with an expression of utter dismay. Betsy's shed lays in pieces around them, the victim to a harsh storm. The unicorn is pawing at the mud, getting flecks of it all up her forelegs.

Dex is kicking boards and shaking his head. “Sorry, Bits. I can't patch it up.”

“So you actually know all about this stuff?” Nursey asks, from the doorway of the kitchen, where he's trying to look inconspicuous. In actuality, he's staring at Dex's hands as they spark with green magic. Jack frowns. Maybe he should have Shitty talk to everyone about the objectification of magic users again.

“Well, yeah,” Dex says, oblivious. “I'm sorry, Bitty. You should probably just ask the administration for another one.”

Jack has a better idea.

 

Jack buys all the wood and nails, gets Dex to help with the sanding and actual construction. But it's not too hard once Dex explains what to do, and all the boys pitch in. They build it in pieces in the art building, since Lardo claims this is pretty normal for a sculptor.

On Bittle's actual birthday, Jack and the rest of the team helps Dex put the pieces together. By the time Bitty gets home, Betsy nickering over his shoulder in excitement, there's a stall ready to go. It's bigger than the old shed, with a proper floor this time. Jack spread fresh straw over it, and installed a decent feeding bucket in the corner so Betsy doesn't have to keep using a regular one.

“Brah,” Shitty says in an undertone, once Bitty is done hugging Jack and crying on his shirt, and has moved on to crying on Dex. Once again, despite the fact that he claims to be completely nonmagical, Jack suspects that Shitty has some latent empathic powers. “Don't look now, but your feelings are showing.”

“Shut up,” Jack says automatically. Bitty's got a unicorn. It doesn't really matter what Jack might want, because he's not about to ruin that for Bitty. He's not that selfish.

Betsy nudges Jack's shoulder with her nose. He rubs her, just a little, and she sighs happily.

“You're welcome, too,” he tells her.

 

And then it's graduation, and Jack finds Bitty out in Betsy's stall, hugging her neck and crying.

It's stupid because Jack is leaving, and Bitty has a unicorn, and for about a hundred other reasons, but--

He kisses Bitty, and can't remember a single one of them.

 

“Jack Laurent Zimmermann,” Bitty says, openly amused. “Did you get a house just so Betsy and I could visit?”

“Um. A little?” Jack hoped, when he was looking at places. He's hiring someone to build a little barn for Betsy to sleep. For now the yard will work. Bitty says it's warm enough in August, and that she likes to be in the fresh air.

“That,” Bitty says, approaching the couch where Jack is doing the crossword, “is the sweetest thing I've ever heard.”

He sits on Jack's lap and kisses him wet and dirty. It makes Jack's head spin, the way Bitty acts when they're alone. It's definitely not what he expected, what with Betsy.

“Let me thank you properly,” Bitty murmurs. His voice is husky, and his hand slips to Jack's zipper.

“Wait a second!” Jack claps his hand over Bitty's, who backs off and looks at him, confused. “What are you—I mean—Betsy? If we have sex won't she leave you?”

Bitty stares at him for a minute, then throws his head back and laughs. “Oh Lord, don't tell me you believe that old myth about unicorns!”

“What—I—that's what everybody always says!” Jack is pretty sure he has resolutely lost the upper hand here. What he is not sure about is how it happened. “So you're not a virgin?”

Bitty's smile turns wicked and self-satisfied. If Jack wasn't already sitting, he'd be knocked off his feet by how hot it is.

“I was a boy who did figure skating. In Georgia. Let's just say any boy who had questions about himself knew who to come ask for help.”

“So why does Betsy follow you everywhere?” Jack is trying to wrap his mind around this new reality. If Bitty isn't a virgin--

“Because she's my best friend. Why? Does it really matter that much to you? Did you want me to be--”

Jack can feel his ears turning red, the back of his neck heating up. “No! Of course not. It's just--” He blushes and can't quite manage to say it. Luckily, Bitty is smart.

“Oh. My.” And now it's Bitty's turn to blush. “But I thought—I mean, Kent Parson--”

Why does everyone always think that Jack and Kent used to date? Parse is the sort of resolutely straight guy that does You Can Play ads and goes to Pride covered in glitter and rainbows, because he's got nothing to lose. When Jack came out, sixteen and shaking in a dark hotel room, he said, “Cool, more chicks for me.”

“You can't get chicks to begin with,” Jack said, back then, relief flooding his entire body.

Now, he says, “No, we weren't like that.” He represses the urge to add, "gross," because he's not actually still sixteen.

“So you've never? With anyone?” Bitty waits for Jack to nod, and then he grins again. “My goodness, do I have some things to show you.”

 

Jack comes downstairs while Bitty is napping and finds Betsy in his kitchen, eating all the apples out of his fruit bowl. The screen door to the backyard is hanging by a single hinge. Jack staggers over to her, body twinging in new and exciting ways.

“Salut, Betsy,” he says, burying his face in her mane. “I'm glad you're here.”


End file.
